Sunday, 10 February 2013

Hitchcock blonde

When I was a kid in the mid-50s TO CATCH A THIEF seemed the height of glamour, no movie stars were more perfect that Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, and this Hitchcock movie was the ultimate with those South of France locations - and so it remains now. Not a major Hitchcock of course, he is rather tongue in cheek here, the film remains a fabulous entertainment, with quite a few Hitch touches he would explore further: someone dangles from a rooftop (VERTIGO), Grant again pulls someone up from a perilous drop (NORTH BY NORTHWEST), and has a rooftop struggle - oops, thats Donen's CHARADE, perhaps the best Hitch movie not made by Hitch and the perfect hommage to TO CATCH A THIEF. Hitch provides (courtesy of scriptwriter John Michael Hayes) witty, racy dialogue and has a lot of fun with Jessie Royce Landis, splendid as Grace's mother (this is the one where she stubs out the cigarette into a fried egg, Hitch didn't like eggs ...). She seems more or less the same age as Cary but its her daughter (Grace was 26) who is his romantic lead (Audrey and Sophia were also much younger in theirs' with Cary). Landis also played Grace's mother in THE SWAN, another good role for her - and then Cary's mother in N BY NW ! - a very Hitchcock joke.

TO CATCH A THIEF must have dazzled audiences in 1955, with those South of France locations, Cary's perfect hilltop home where he serves that new concoction Quiche Lorraine to an appreciative John Williams, the insurance man protecting those jewels which retired burglar The Cat is determined to nab. Cary really is the retired burgler who has to stop the impersonator incriminating him in these jewel robberies. Cue lots of to-ing and fro-ing (odd to see Grace driving on those roads where she had that fatal accident in 1982...) and lots of dressing up, particuarly for that fancy dress ball at the climax. Grace wears that stunning gold ensemble for that; she is dressed by Edith Head here and has some dazzling outfits: that ice blue dress for her first encounter with Grant, and the stunning white dress for the fireworks scene. Hitch is obviously in his element here as he circles the pair, gettting closer and closer, as the fireworks explode and Kelly taunts Grant about her necklace, or maybe her other attributes as encased in that show-stopping dress. Its a stunning scene, surely reprised in the 1968 THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR for that chess-playing scene ...

This is surely Kelly's best role (even more than REAR WINDOW or HIGH SOCIETY) and Hitch showcases her perfectly. He continued with his blondes of course, transforming Kim Novak and Eva Marie Saint and Janet, until Tippi came along ....

Stylish entertainment doesnt get much better than this, and never goes out of date. We love too Grace's final comment: "So this is where you live, mother will love it up here".

Hitchcock is certainly on a roll now, the new film HITCHCOCK has opened to middling reviews - ok it is a pedestrian work of fiction, but one has to see it - and the classics are on show all over again: THE BIRDS was on again last night, VERTIGO is on tonight, SABOTEUR and TOPAZ also scheduled, as in REAR WINDOW. We watch them over and over .... see Hitchcock label for reports on these and MARNIE and "Sight & Sound"'s last year new list with VERTIGO as the new number one ...For the record: my Top 10 Hitchs: THE BIRDS, PSYCHO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, VERTIGO, REAR WINDOW, NOTORIOUS, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, ROPE, THE 39 STEPS, REBECCA. and I quite like STAGE FRIGHT and UNDER CAPRICORN, the early RICH AND STRANGE, and that final FAMILY PLOT.

My 1962 TOWN Marilyn cover magazine, when I was 16

My 1962 Antonioni magazine, when I was 16, I still have them.

About Me

Just retired, writing memoir and movie reviews and star profiles on imdb. I started going to the movies aged 8 in Ireland in 1954, and moved to London in 1964, when 18, just in time for Swinging London. [It certainly did, from seeing Streisand in Funny Girl in 1966, in the front row, to Aretha at her peak, The Doors and Jefferson Airplane all-nighter at the Roundhouse, and 2001 on acid... and meeting a lot of my favourites: Bogarde, Loren, Remick, Heston, Bergman etc.] Commenting here on all kinds of movies from art-house (I am an Antonioni kind of guy) to sword-and-sandal, re-living the 50s and 60s and 70s and going back to the 30s and 40s - but mainly loving the late '50s and early '60s. Into English and international movies as well as those Italian, French, American and others....then there's books, music and everything else. Thanks to imdb pals Daryl and Timshelboy for leading me further into neglected hollywood classics and the more outre international choice items. My IMDb profiles are at: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur7940682/boards/profile/?preview=1